Double Trouble 2
Castle Queen's Side
Summer rolled around, and James and I spent hours and hours out of doors. In late June, the papers were screaming about how a professor at Hogwarts had captured Sirius Black but that somehow he had managed to escape.
"That's amazing," James commented as we read through the article. "He must be a very powerful Dark Wizard to get into Hogwarts. All the books make it sound like an impregnable fortress."
"He had to be powerful to get out of Azkaban," I reminded James. "Why do you think he waited so long? It's got to be horrid there."
"Maybe it had something to do with Voldemort," James mused. "Maybe he's going to try to come back."
"Don't you think he'd have come by now if he were planning to?" I asked.
"Maybe he couldn't," James said. "It's been a long time, but maybe he's just been waiting."
"Let's not think about that," I said, shivering. "What Black did was bad enough, but Voldemort…." I trailed off.
"Yeah," James said. "And you know they didn't send all of Voldemort's old supporters to prison, like they did Black. Some of them are still out there."
"Those are mostly the ones who Voldemort bewitched," I reminded James. "All the really dedicated ones are in Azkaban."
"Except Sirius Black," James pointed out.
"They'll catch him soon, surely," I said. "I wonder how he escaped when he was captured at Hogwarts?"
"Dark magic," my brother said assuredly. "Had to be."
"Minister Fudge thinks they'll get Black soon," I read.
"What's that about Fudge?" Mum walked into the room.
"Oh, he thinks they'll get Black soon," I said.
"What's the 'Dementor's Kiss'?" James asked, reading farther on in the article. Mum stood very still for a moment, then spoke slowly. She seemed to be trying her best to keep a tight hold on herself.
"The Dementor's Kiss is very likely the worst thing that can ever be done to a person," she said. "The Dementors are terrible things. They take all the happiness and joy from people just by being around them, and cause us to remember the worst moments of our lives." She stopped for a moment. Tears glistened in her eyes. "The Dementor's Kiss is its worst weapon. The Kiss – destroys a person's soul, completely destroys it. The victim will live, or at least keep breathing, but everything that makes him human is gone." James and I both shivered.
"That's horrible," I said. "But I think if anyone deserves it, Black does."
"Does he?" Mum asked slowly. She didn't even seem to be talking to us. "Does anyone?"
"But Black killed all those people! He deserves it." James declared.
"You can say that because you don't know anything," Mum said sharply. "Everything's simple until you know all the facts. Then nothing is ever so clear cut." She turned her face away from us. "It's a nice day. Why don't you two and Adhara go hiking?"
"That's what we had planned," I confirmed. "We'll take a lunch and be gone all day."
"That sounds fine," Mum said. She moved off slowly.
"I told you that that way was longer," I said sharply to James as we approached the house. It was quite dark out. "Good thing the moon was full just a few days ago, or we'd have had some real trouble."
"Look, if you hadn't insisted on stopping so many times-"
"Twice!" I said. "Wait a minute – look!" I pointed up to the house. Lights were on in the kitchen and I could see silhouettes. Mum was there, and so was someone else. They seemed to be talking animatedly, with many gestures. We hurried up to the side door and pushed it open. The other person was Uncle Remus.
"Uncle Remus!" we yelled together, dropping the basket and going to embrace him. He laughed.
"Nice to see you too," he said.
"Aren't you supposed to be at Hogwarts?" I asked.
"I resigned," he said softly. "I came here on my way home because I had some news for your mother." James and I turned to look at Mum. She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. She looked happier than I'd ever seen her. Quite clearly round her neck I could see a chain with two rings on. That's what she wears, I thought. She's always had it inside her shirt before. One ring was plain gold; the other had a shining stone I thought might be a diamond.
"James, Lily," she began, then started crying again. "Sit down here. I have something important to tell you." We sat, staring curiously at each other.
"I want to tell you about your father," she said through her tears. I thought my jaw would drop off, I was so surprised. Our father? Really? She began to speak again.
"When I was at Hogwarts, I had a number of very good friends. Remus was one, of course. Two of the others, I named you for. Lily was like a sister to me, and James, who married her, was like a brother.
"James' best friend was Sirius Black."
"The murderer?" James yelled excitedly. "You knew him?"
"Yes," Mum said. "But he wasn't a murderer." She smiled weakly through her tears. "That's what Remus came to tell me. Sirius Black is an innocent man."
"So why'd he get sent to Azkaban?" James asked. I was silent, trying to think through her words and understand what she was really saying.
"It's a long story," Uncle Remus said. "But he's not a murderer, or a traitor. Another of our friends was the one who actually did the deeds, but people think he's dead."
"Unfortunately, we can't convince the Ministry right now that Sirius is innocent," Mum said. "But at least we know." Suddenly, with a burst of understanding, I knew what she had not yet said.
"Is Sirius Black our father?" I asked slowly. Mum smiled a bit.
"He is," she said. "We were married only a few months before he was sent to Azkaban. I had just found out that I was pregnant with you two. Sirius doesn't even know about you two –unless you mentioned that when you saw him?" she asked, darting a glance at Remus.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I didn't exactly have the chance."
"Well, when we get him off, it'll be a nice surprise, I hope," she said.
"How are you going to get him off?" James asked.
"I don't know," Mum admitted, "But we are. Thirteen years is long enough." Uncle Remus laughed and shook his head admiringly.
"I was wondering where you'd been," he said.
"What on earth do you mean?" Mum asked, staring at him.
"Oh, Jenny, it's been such a long time since you've had such determination. You remind me of how you used to refuse to admit defeat at chess, even when it was hopeless, or that Quidditch match when Gryffindor was down by two hundred points."
"Well, I'm not going to let that idiot get himself killed!" Mum declared fiercely. "I knew he had no sense when I married him. That's why I married him, so that he wouldn't get himself killed."
"Oh, really?" Uncle Remus looked interested. "That's not why you said you married him all those years ago."
"Well, that was part of the reason," she said, laughing. "So we need a plan."
"Sirius asked me to explain things to you," he said. "He wrote a letter to me, letting me know that he was safe. If we can get an owl to him…"
"I'm sure our post is being read," Mum said. "I know the Ministry isn't supposed to do that, but Fudge doesn't really trust me. Idiot."
"And Snape will have people watching me, reading my mail, probably sneaking around my house," Uncle Remus said. "We'll set up some spells so that if Sirius does come here, the Ministry won't be able to tell."
"If he keep his head and comes as a dog," Mum began. Then she stopped. "No, you said Snape knows about the Animagus thing?"
"He does."
"I still can't believe that I didn't know about that," Mum muttered. "We were married and he didn't even tell me! I wonder if Lily knew."
"I think she did," Uncle Remus said. I realized, of course, that they weren't talking about me, but about Mum's old friend. I didn't understand most of the conversation, but it was interesting.
"I'll find his wand and stuff, in case he shows up," Mum said. "I've got them all, stored them away years back."
"Do you have the motorcycle?" Uncle Remus asked.
"I'd almost forgotten about that," Mum mused. "Yes, I've got it. Hagrid gave it back to me. He was one of the ones who knew that Sirius and I were married, you know. But he never said anything to me that made it seem that he thought I might be involved with Voldemort, not like the Minister. I wish we could tell him the truth."
"Soon everyone in England –in the world –will know that Sirius is innocent, Jenny," Uncle Remus promised.
"I hope so," she said sitting down. She sat down at the table, pulled her necklace up to look at the rings. With a laugh, she took them off the chain and put them on her finger.
"I kept them all these years," she said sadly. "They still fit, amazingly enough."
"Tell us about –about Dad," James asked suddenly. Mum looked at him, considering.
"It's hard to know exactly where to start," she mused. "He always was a complex person, Sirius. I mean, I called him an idiot often enough, but he was very clever, very clever. He was mischievous and daring, but considerate and compassionate, too. His biggest problem was that he had no common sense. He really couldn't tell a good idea from a bad one. The number of times his schemes landed him, with or without any of us, into trouble," she said, laughing. "I can remember him laughing even now over some terrible joke he had just played." Her face went empty for a moment. "Laughing," she whispered. "Did he go crazy for a while, after James and Lily died? Because he felt guilty? Or was it something in Pettigrew's spell? Funny, I'd never have thought that man could do anything so deadly. I suppose Voldemort had taught him some powerful Dark Magic." She sighed and turned back to us.
"I remember the day we met," she began. "We were in the same year at Hogwarts, and the same House, Gryffindor…"
She kept talking long into the night, with Uncle Remus telling an anecdote every now and then. Finally, she looked up.
"Oh my! It's after two in the morning! You two have to go to bed now." We tiredly obeyed her. My mind was too full of thoughts even to think about anything I'd learned.
"Lily, we've got to do something!" James paced up and down my room. I sat on my bed. Afternoon sun shone in the window. Mum and Uncle Remus were apparently pulling our father's things out of wherever Mum had put them all those years ago.
"Like what?" I asked sleepily. I'd only woken up a few minutes before.
"I don't know," he said, swinging his arms like a windmill. "But we can't just sit here doing nothing."
"Let Mum and Uncle Remus plan things," I suggested. "I'm still a bit in shock over the news. I mean, okay, Sirius Black is our father, and he's innocent, but everyone thinks that he's guilty, and –oh, it's just so unbelievable."
"Yes," James agreed. "It was a bit weird to finally learn the truth."
"I understand why Mum didn't want to tell us before," I said. "I don't blame her. Poor Mum, I don't think she's had a very easy life."
"No," James said. "Then again, our lives haven't been as easy as they might have been." He laughed shortly. "Sirius Black, our father. Sounds strange, doesn't it?'
"You know, if I ever meet that Pettigrew, I think I'm going to whack him," I said. "That was horrible, what he did."
"It sure was," James said. "And the Potters, think about them." He stopped for a minute, then grinned.
"What's so funny?" I asked sharply.
"Just what Uncle Remus and Mum were saying. You realize that when we prove Dad is innocent, Harry Potter might come live with us?"
"That's pretty odd," I said. "Of course, that's up to him, I guess. And to Mum, if she can figure out a way to clear Dad. This whole situation is weird." I shook my head. "But it'd be wonderful to have a father like everyone else."
"It sure will be."
"I hope it will be," I said slowly. "They've still got to prove that Pettigrew was the one who did everything."
"If we could trap Pettigrew," James began.
"James, we can't, okay? We're not capable of such a thing." I sniffed. "Apparently you didn't inherit any sense from our mother."
"That's the best way to prove that our father didn't kill or betray anyone," James said stubbornly.
"So you think Mum and Uncle Remus will even let us help?" I asked sarcastically. "You know better than that."
"I wish there was a way we could send a message to Dad," James said. "But if they're reading our owls…."
"That's illegal," I said, knowing that just because something is illegal doesn't mean that the Ministry wouldn't do it. "We would need another way." I thought for a minute. "What about Adhara?"
"Could we make her understand what we want her to do?" James asked.
"Let's go talk to Mum." We scrambled down the stairs to the library. Mum and Uncle Remus were hauling something out of a large, recently unsealed cupboard. I stared at it. It was a huge black motorcycle, dusty but in good condition.
"What is that?" James asked.
"Your father's motorcycle," Uncle Remus explained. Mum brushed dust off, smiling faintly.
"He loved this motorcycle," she said. "Used to ride around for hours. He took me for a flight many times."
"It flies?" I asked. "Isn't that illegal?"
"You think that would stop Sirius?" Uncle Remus raised an eyebrow. "He managed to get around the law somehow. Everyone knew he had this, nobody ever arrested him."
"Hey, Mum, we had an idea," I said, remembering why I'd come. "We thought that maybe we could use Adhara to send Dad a message!"
"That's a good idea," Mum said. "I think I can probably get her to understand what she's supposed to do… I trained a few owls when I was younger. We have to figure out something that will tell Sirius that he can come here, but not something that would alert the Ministry to the fact that we're helping him if it falls into the wrong hands."
"Right," Uncle Remus said. "I'll start thinking, you fix the bird." James and I wandered off to the kitchen, leaving them to it.
Three hours later, we watched Mum tie a small piece of parchment to Adhara's talons. The message that she and Uncle Remus had come up with was simple, yet clear to our father only, we hoped.
Padfoot –
Castle queen's side to avoid opposing rooks. Path is grim but clear.
I thought this was a lot of nonsense, but Uncle Remus explained that Dad should understand.
"He and your mother used to play a lot of chess. That's what the first part of the message refers to. Castling is a way of protecting the king. Queen's side is to tell him that this place – where Jenny is – is safe for him. Grim tells him to travel in the Animagus form, so that he's not watched, and the rest tells him that we've got spells up to hide him once he gets here."
"Are you sure he'll understand that?" I asked, scratching my head.
"No," Uncle Remus admitted, "but it's our best shot. We'll just hope that he understands." Then Mum threw Adhara up into the air and we watched her wing off. Mum stood watching for a long time before coming in. Now there was nothing we could do but wait.
Author's Note: This part's pretty short. The action really starts in the next part. Did I surprise anyone with who the twins' father is? I did get one email that sounded kind of confused… Anything in the stories so far that hasn't been explained will be explained in various future stories. Please keep reviewing; it really makes my day!